By WILLIAM WRIGHT HEATLEY
Staff Writer
The Super Bowl LIII halftime show, headlined by award winning band Maroon 5, and featuring Travis Scott and Big Boi was received poorly by fans and critics alike. Much like previous Super Bowl halftime shows which seemed to bring the same level of excitement and awe as the game, this performance reflected Super Bowl LIII; it was lackluster until the few minutes before the end. In fact, by the lack of ratings, it only seemed to make those watching groan even more than they already had during the course of the evening.
Maroon 5 frontman and lead vocalist Adam Levine seemed as though he was in a dress rehearsal rather than the actual performance. His vocals seemed a little off, unusual for someone of his talents. Straining to hit certain notes, it appeared that Levine was a little uncomfortable with himself, particularly when required to sing at the top of his register.
Whether it was an off-night, or exhaustion, the performance didn’t have the same aesthetic response or magnitude that Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Coldplay, Bruno Mars, The Who, etc. did. Maroon 5 didn’t leave us with any memorable band moments. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t as good as many thought they would be. Levine in particular seemed uninterested in what he was doing, almost like the show was void of an audience.
In order to spice up the festivities in the middle of performing the hit “Moves Like Jagger,” Levine pulled off his soon-to-become a meme Home Goods pattern tank top, revealing his bare tattooed chest. The Twitterverse subsequently responded by making Janet Jackson references.
The biggest disappointment of all however, was the reaction to the sudden appearance of Spongebob Squarepants and Squidward Tentacles in marching band uniforms.
The characters from the popular Nickelodeon cartoon made a surprise appearance that everyone had been calling for, as a tribute to the show’s late creator Stephen Hillenburg, who passed away last fall due to complications from ALS. “Band Geeks,” considered to be one of the greatest Spongebob episodes ever, featured Squidward’s Bikini Bottom Band playing “Sweet Victory,” an original song, in a Super Bowl style setting. “Sweet Victory” is iconic and is synonymous with Spongebob, and so seeing clips of “Band Geeks” right before they were about to play the song made people ecstatic.
What they ended up doing however, is tease the first few seconds of “Sweet Victory” before going into Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode,” which felt really out of place. Many expected “Sweet Victory,” or a remix of some kind, but all they received was four measures of the beginning and no satisfaction of hearing the actual song.
A couple days after, one individual edited clips of the halftime show to include “Sweet Victory” and uploaded it to YouTube, where in several days it has eclipsed two million views and counting. The majority of the comments on the video are positive, saying that it’s what the halftime show should have been, and not what it was.
As for the performance from Big Boi? There wasn’t much to remember, other than the fur coat he was wearing.
At a certain point, the halftime show felt very surreal. It was like when Fergie tried to grind on Slash during his guitar solo several years ago; it became borderline theatre of the absurd.
In trying to reach a wide audience with a diverse lineup of musical acts, it can be difficult to achieve success. I think that one of the reasons why it wasn’t a memorable show.
There was a traditional band, a rapper, and a performance artist, who as a collective, didn’t fit with the environment. Spongebob wasn’t given his full opportunity, and the hearts of fans looking for fulfillment were broken as a result.
The football gods show no mercy, even in music. Amen.
